


in for a penny

by crescenttwins



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Fluff, Geass Valentines 2016, Gen, Student Council
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 20:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6298240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crescenttwins/pseuds/crescenttwins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: student council; studying/party planning/working on school budgets/basically any activity that ought to be simple but quickly gets out of hand thanks to Milly</p>
            </blockquote>





	in for a penny

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meteorain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meteorain/gifts).



> For geassvalentines2016 and the lovely lovely gogo! <3 This is the slightly revised version of what was posted on Tumblr last month, so hopefully it's a bit of a better read this time around!

It has been forty-five minutes, and Lelouch’s legs are cramping. He has never been good at running, air leeched from his lungs as desperation pushes his legs forward. The sound of his heart is loud in his ears, loud enough that he isn’t certain whether the footsteps behind him have vanished or if their sound is merely drowned out by his own panic. It doesn’t matter, he thinks. If they’re still following him, he’s lead them far enough from the library that-- Nunnally should be safe, hidden in one of the smaller study rooms. But there are more than one of them, in this place, and Lelouch knows better than to let his guard down.

But having your guard up is different that being able to defend yourself, and as he turns the corner, paint splatters across his chest in a burst of red. The impact of the pellet is sharper than he expected, but it is the surprise that makes his feet slide out from under him. Lelouch winces, prepares himself for the impact.

His assailant catches him easily around the waist.

“Found Lelouch,” Suzaku announces into his headset. “Running around in the corridor near the second year classrooms.” He steadies Lelouch a moment later, an obnoxiously smug grin creeping up on his lips.

Part of Lelouch is pleased at the smear of red paint he’s left on Suzaku’s uniform, a stain on Suzaku’s otherwise pristine person.

Suzaku taps Lelouch’s shoulder to draw his attention. “Milly says you can either go back to the Student Council room and watch the rest, or tag along as a ghost?”

“A ‘ghost’?”

“A ‘dead’ player,” Suzaku explains, “You basically follow me around and make noise to warn others I’m nearby. You can’t protect the others or interfere with my shots, though.” The gun rests easily in his hand, its polymer frame lighter than the army standard. Even with the bright blue slide and bright orange ring around the muzzle, Suzaku’s confidence with the gun makes it feel like a true weapon.

“A ghost, then,” he says.

“It’ll be a fun adventure,” Suzaku says. He starts down the hallway Lelouch came; Lelouch eyes the paper pinned to his back reading _TEMPORARY INTRUDER_ in Milly’s curly scrawl.

“Why are we heading this way?” Lelouch says, wary and trying to keep his eyes from going towards the library.

Suzaku hums, eyes sweeping over the hall. “You were being chased by someone but they didn’t shoot you, so either someone else was also hiding down here and playing pranks, or Shirley only chased you enough to make you nervous.”

“I don’t know that it was fair that you and Shirley were selected to be our pretend threat,” Lelouch complains half-heartedly.

“It’s because the rest of you don’t exercise enough,” Suzaku laughs. “Besides, it’s better for simulation if you assume any intruders are in better physical condition and better armed than you are.”

“Terror drill revision isn’t usually so active,” Lelouch argues.

“Milly has a point, though,” Suzaku returns, half-distracted, and abruptly opens a window. From over Suzaku’s shoulder he spies Rivalz creeping through the courtyard, but before he can make a noise, Suzaku’s finger squeezes tight around the trigger.

A splash of red crashes against the side of Rivalz’s shoulder and face, and the boy below them makes a sound of outrage. “You got paint in my mouth!” He yells up at them.

“Non-toxic,” Lelouch offers from his place behind Suzaku.

“Not helping, Lelouch!” Rivalz says.

Suzaku leans out of the window so Rivalz can see him more clearly. “Head back up the Student Council room! We’re only missing Kallen and Nunnal--” Lelouch grips Suzaku’s elbow, pinching, “--and then you guys lose.”

“We’re swapping after this,” Rivalz announces. “There will be payback, Suzaku.”

“We’ll see,” Suzaku returns.

Rivalz laughs, and they wait until he re-enters the building before moving on.

A moment passes, their footsteps the only sounds exchanged between them.

“You found Nina already?”

“We found her early on,” Suzaku responds. “She was following the old terror drill regulations, but she chose the lab on the first floor so there were easy access points to the room. Shirley got her through a window.”

“Interesting,” Lelouch says.

“But Milly’s got a point, you know,” Suzaku says, “regarding the old terror drill protocols. If you only have assailants on foot, armed with a gun or knife, then it makes sense to blockade yourself in a secure room and stay out of sight.” He checks another classroom before they move further down the hallway. “But these days people have access to machines of war, and that tactic won’t work if the intruders are coming in with Knightmare Frames. You’d be brought down with the building.”

“This started off over _lunch_ ,” Lelouch responds. “How did we go from trying to draft new protocol over lunch to running around trying to avoid the people with paintball guns?”

Suzaku muffles a sound similar to laughter, and he plucks his headset off to offer to Lelouch. “Ask her yourself.”

Lelouch slips the headset in easily, waiting for a moment to adjust to the difference in sound. “Hello,” he greets the others.

 _“It’s good practice, Lelouch!”_ Milly’s voice is tinny over the headset, an unfortunate and frequent problem with the civilian-grade wireless comms.

“I realize,” he says.

“ _And we can discuss strategies on how to move around the school grounds after this,_ ” she says, “ _now that we have real data to think about. Not only Suzaku’s military way of sweeping the grounds for targets but the way you, Shirley, Nina, and Kallen have been moving around the grounds is quite interesting as well!”_

“Not Nunnally?” Lelouch ponders.

“ _No one’s mentioned her yet, and she hasn’t shown up on any cameras since you both entered the library_ ,” Milly admits. “ _So I imagine that you squirreled her away somewhere to wait out the full ninety minutes._ ”

“Current time remaining?”

“ _We have thirty minutes to find Kallen and Nunnally,”_ Milly responds. “ _And then we would assume that rescuers would have come to handle the situation.”_

Lelouch watches Suzaku check through another classroom. “Rivalz mentioned that he’d be interested in a rematch, with sides flopped.”

“ _That wouldn’t be quite fair, since there are so many more of you._ ”

“He probably just wants to make me taste paint,” Suzaku says off-handedly.

“Part of it is probably firing the guns as well,” Lelouch mentions, “since he likes that sort of thrill.”

Suzaku opens the door to the library, and Lelouch can’t help the tension that slips into his body. He keeps his eyes resolutely away from the entrance to the room where Nunnally is hiding, instead fixing his eyes against Suzaku’s back.

It takes a moment before he realizes that Milly is calling his name on the other end of the headset.

“Can you repeat that?” Lelouch asks.

“ _I was saying that between Rivalz, Nina and I, we’ve figured out most of the necessary revisions. The big question remaining is what to do in the rooms we can’t secure, and to see if we can find some safe routes out of the building that students could use to get out unseen.”_

“That’s dangerous,” Lelouch responds as he eyes Suzaku roaming the library. “If you attempt to make students move on their own you increase the risk of a hostage situation, or increased casualties.”

“ _That’s true. But Lelouch, if we look at everyone who’s been hit so far, we’ve already had massive casualties just staying in the school_.”

It isn’t a point he can argue, not when the paint is still bright against his uniform.

“Where did you get those guns?” He asks.

“ _Ah, I’ve had them for a while,_ ” Milly admits, “ _I hadn’t planned to use them in quite this way, but it certainly has worked out well~”_

Suzaku finishes the sweep of the main space in the library, and starts checking the individual rooms. Something tightens in Lelouch’s throat, and he swallows. “Time remaining?”

“ _Twenty-one minutes_ ,” Milly says. “ _But it looks like Suzaku will find Nunnally soon, and Shirley’s getting closer to Kallen so I think we’ll wrap this up nicely.”_

There’s a tension that there shouldn’t be, lingering in Lelouch’s shoulders and back. This is a game of pretend, of something innocent, where a shot is equal to losing the game but not honor or life. He won’t fool himself and pretend he doesn’t know why Suzaku pointing a gun at Nunnally makes him nervous, but those are the rules of the game and--

Lelouch narrows his eyes, and says, “Shirley’s having trouble with Kallen?”

Suzaku’s head comes up, focus centering on Lelouch even as Milly fails to respond.

“Well, it would be easier for them to get Kallen if Suzaku assisted, but he hasn’t finished the library yet,” Lelouch says.

“ _Clever_ ,” Milly says, a cheerful note in her voice. “ _You don’t want him anywhere Nunnally, is it?”_

“Yes, if you want to tell me the location you can, but I doubt they’ll still be there after Suzaku’s done here.”

The sigh Milly lets out is too affectionate to be reprimanding. “ _They’re near the fourth floor classrooms,”_ she informs him.

When Lelouch looks up, eyes drawn to the ground for the conversation, Suzaku is waiting patiently.

“Where are they?” The other male asks.

“Fourth floor classrooms,” Lelouch says. “But it sounds like they’re moving fast, so I don’t know that they’ll stay there for long.”

“We can take the stairs,” Suzaku decides, moving out of the library quickly. “If we’re fast enough they won’t see us coming.”

Lelouch follows behind, aware that Suzaku will outpace him if he is truly rushing, and takes the moment to check--

“ _Sixteen minutes left._ ”

Sixteen minutes to keep Suzaku and Shirley away from Nunnally.

He hurries forward, taking the steps as quickly and carefully as he can, and he curses his lack of stamina. One flight of stairs makes his breathing come quicker, and the second flight makes him aware of both the ache in his legs and his heart racing in his chest as he wheezes. In the distance he can hear the sound of the paintball guns going off.

Part of him wonders how Kallen is pulling off her frail persona and managing to avoid Shirley and Suzaku.

By the time he gets to classroom that noise is coming from, the answer becomes clear. Shirley is behind the teacher’s desk, unarmed, and her missing gun is held tightly in the Kallen’s hand. Suzaku fires another shot at Kallen from the other door, but his shot goes wide.

“Come down here or you might get hit in the crossfire,” Shirley says, waving Lelouch over. “Neither of them is aiming very well-- I think Kallen’s never used a gun before because her wrists move even more than mine did at the recoil, and Suzaku’s trying to keep out of sight.”

Lelouch mentally applauds, even as Kallen displays a painfully fake surprise at the recoil.

“Time left?” He asks Shirley.  
  
“Just under ten minutes, I think,” Shirley says. “But it’s been a lot of fun-- I’m glad Milly suggested it.”

“Is that so,” Lelouch responds, only slightly skeptical. “How did Kallen manage to get your gun?”

Shirley laughs, a sound only slightly embarrassed. “She was crouched over in the hallway so I was worried that she might have fainted. I put the gun down to check her pulse, and she snatched it. She didn’t move the muzzle off of me until she had some barriers between the two of us.”

“Killer instinct,” Lelouch murmurs.

“Must be,” Shirley agrees. “But I’m glad. Kallen seems weak at times, but she has the strength to go after what she wants.” She stretches her arms out even as the sound of firing resumes around them. “Ah, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think she’s strong in general-- I meant her body is-- well, she--”

Lelouch smiles at Shirley. “She has an inner strength.”

“Right!” Shirley agrees, a bit too passionately.

“ _Ooh, flirting_ ,” Milly says to both of them, and Shirley scoots away from Lelouch, hands coming up to hold her cheeks as she blurts Milly’s name.

“You must be done the revisions then,” Lelouch says.

“ _Almost~ It’s been helpful that Rivalz came to the council room after he was out, unlike a certain other someone I could mention…”_

“Suzaku gave me the choice,” Lelouch responds.

“ _Well, he would_ ,” Milly agrees.

“What?”

“ _I wonder,”_ she responds. “ _Well, I’ll let you get back to it. Five minute warning!_ ”

“Five minutes!” Shirley announces to the room. Then, quieter, she asks, “Did we get everyone except for Kallen?”

“Everyone but Kallen and Nunnally,” Lelouch says.

“So Nunnally and Kallen will be the winners if this game ends on a stalemate. That sounds like a good ending to me.”

“ _We’re trying to win, Shirley--”_ Milly says on the other end of the headset.

“But if we win, isn’t that the same as saying the intruders would hurt the students significantly?” Shirley questions.

Milly pauses for a moment, something softer and more serious breaking through the cheer that’s pervaded her responses thus far. “ _I suppose you’re right_."

Time slips forward, counts down closer and closer to zero, and in the end Kallen manages to catch Suzaku in the abdomen as she takes a shot in the upper chest. After a moment, Suzaku looks at both and declares them both ‘dead’.

Nunnally is the sole survivor of the mock invasion, Shirley the ‘arrested intruder’, and Lelouch sighs in relief before standing.

His sudden appearance makes both Suzaku and Kallen flinch.

“You were hiding there the whole time?” Kallen says, eying him and the large paint splotch on his chest. “That looks like Suzaku hit you point blank.”

“That’s because I did,” Suzaku agrees carelessly, coming into the classroom. “He ran into me.”

“Lelouch was running?” Kallen questions, unflattering surprise coming to her face.

“Ah,” Shirley says, a bit sheepishly, “I caught him near the library and thought I would chase him around a bit to make this simulation feel more real.”

As Suzaku turns to say something approving, Lelouch tries to slip out of the classroom surreptitiously. He doesn’t get far; by the time he’s stepped out of the classroom, Kallen has drawn attention to his escape attempt. It is only natural, then, that Lelouch finds himself with an entourage of the three most physically fit Student Council members as he enters the library.

“I knew you wanted me to leave the library,” Suzaku says as Lelouch pushes Nunnally out of the side room. “It was odd that Milly said they were moving quickly, since when I arrived Shirley was pinned behind the desk.”

Lelouch shrugs, eyes checking over Nunnally as she remarks on the smell of paint. “You shouldn’t give away your only method of communicating with your team. Especially not to an enemy.”

“I trust you,” Suzaku says, easy.  
  


  
  
  
  
  
The paint is still drying on Suzaku and Kallen’s uniforms when they finish the revision.

Milly seems brighter than usual, her eyes crinkled in the corners as she smiles. “An excellent result! Thank you for all of your hard work today, everyone~” She announces, sealing the document to be submitted to the academy’s governing board.

Nina comments, “It was certainly easier to think of how plans would fail when we saw it happen in real time.” It is only because Nina’s plan failed as well that Lelouch does not let his lips twist into a scowl, but the fact doesn’t stop the indignant sound that escapes Rivalz.

“Right! And a special thank you to our two intruders of the day, Shirley and Suzaku! Rivalz seems to think that you were a bit vindictive, Suzaku, but in the end you delivered all of the late game shots-- just as we would expect from an ace pilot!”

Eying the way Suzaku’s smile grows strained around the edges, Lelouch interrupts, “Well, he has always been too competitive when it comes to these games. Even tag became an endurance challenge when we were kids.”

“You couldn’t just give up?” Rivalz questions, “No offense, but I don’t think you’d ever catch up to Suzaku once you were tagged.”

“He wouldn’t tag me,” Lelouch says, “but run at a pace just fast enough that I felt like he was constantly on my heels. It was _awful_.”

“The minute I tagged him he was done playing,” Suzaku laughs. “So I had to figure out another way to make him play with me.”

“I would have played chess with you any time you asked,” Lelouch says.

Suzaku grimaces. “Chess is…”

“A difficult game to play when you have a lot of energy, especially as a kid,” Shirley says. “It’s hard to sit down and focus when you want to go out and play.”

“Right,” Suzaku agrees.

“I’m surprised you don’t play now,” Nina comments, “since you’re older and have a better grasp of the game?”

“Now, now,” Milly says, “there’s nothing wrong with not liking chess. Especially if that dislike keeps you away from certain _activities_.”

“Activities?” Suzaku repeats, frowning. His eyes slide across the others in the room before settling on Lelouch.

“It’s a little bit of gambling over chess,” Rivalz explains.

“Lelouch?” Suzaku questions.

Lelouch shrugs. “The players there weren’t very good.”

“I think Lelouch went mostly because he was bored,” Shirley mentions, “but he hasn’t been there for a while now.”

“Is that so,” Suzaku says, eyes lingering fondly on Lelouch.

Milly laughs, “How did we get onto this topic? We should be celebrating the completion of this revision!”

“I think the simulation was celebration enough,” Lelouch says.

“Ah, but I didn’t get to participate did I?” She returns.

Nunnally makes a noise of agreement from the other end of the table. “It would be nice to spend more time with everyone,” she says.

It’s laughably easy to see Lelouch’s reluctance drain away in response.

   
  
  
  
  


And later, they will relocate to the Student Council building, paint-stained uniforms traded in for pajamas and settled in front of the television. Re-runs of late night comedy skits will fill the screen, and their laughter will saturate the room with something warm and comfortable.

Comfortable enough that Lelouch will finally let the tension slip from his shoulders, sinking into the couch cushions behind him. And if his fingers slip against Suzaku’s in the space between them, no one will comment on it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! :D


End file.
